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Danny @dafrankland.bsky.social · 5h

Regarding the costs for hosting, I wonder if they could partly be ameliorated through having Hundred-style doubleheaders. Attach them as day games to a men's T20 series, and some things are already paid for.

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Danny @dafrankland.bsky.social · 6h

This presupposes that England are clearly superior to any of the top 9 women's teams, when the current and previous World Cups suggest this is not the case at all.

A couple of T20 series without the 30+ batting core against Sri Lanka, Pakistan, West Indies or Bangladesh would be illuminating.

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Danny @dafrankland.bsky.social · 15h

Sure, but England needs to blood new players in a way Australia doesn't. And a shift in culture, in a way Australia doesn't. And learn basic batting technique, in a way Australia doesn't.

It feels unfair on Edwards that England seem to be heading towards a huge iceberg and she has no steering wheel

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Danny @dafrankland.bsky.social · 15h

I've just looked up England women's schedule for the next year, and it is a mess.

Only six ODIs in the *fifteen months* following this World Cup. No more T20s until three weeks before next year's T20 World Cup in England.

What chance does Charlotte Edwards stand?
www.ecb.co.uk/news/4163189

England Women Future Tours Programme confirmed for 2025-2029

<i>The ICC has unveiled the 2025-2029 Future Tours Programme, which outlines the fixtures for the fourth edition of the ICC Women’s Championship.</i>

www.ecb.co.uk

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Danny @dafrankland.bsky.social · 17h

I'm confused. I thought Americans uniformly had a higher level of customer service and business acumen which would mean things like this never happen...

A tweet by Peter Della Penna saying "Under the failed leadership of board chair Venu Pisike & CEO Johnathan Atkeison, USA Cricket has bled out more than 5,600 members since 2023. That includes 55 out of 116 (47%) former member leagues from 2023 who have completely abandoned USA Cricket in 2025. Shame on USA Cricket".

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Danny @dafrankland.bsky.social · 10d

I feel this is a tactical mistake. If you don't give journalists access, you don't have anything to take away if they start writing things you don't like.

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Danny @dafrankland.bsky.social · Sep 8

Middlesex are broke, don't have their own ground, and riddled with off-field issues. Is the MCC financially supporting this, or is this wishful thinking?

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Danny @dafrankland.bsky.social · Sep 6

Where was Grace Scrivens on the list?

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Danny @dafrankland.bsky.social · Aug 28

I suspect the end result might be that both the men's and women's competitions will have the same minimum and maximum squad salaries (therefore 'equal'), but in practice the men will get the maximum and the women the minimum.

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Reposted by Danny

CRICKETher @crickether.com · Aug 22

The ICC: Why do journalists not come to cover our tournaments any more?

Also the ICC: [Moves several matches, including (probably!) the final 1,000km at the last minute; causing any journalists who had made plans to have to change them - in many cases at great personal expense.]

Revised schedule confirmed for ICC Women's Cricket World Cup | ICC Women's Cricket World Cup, 2025 | ICC

The unavailability of Chinnaswamy Stadium has seen Navi Mumbai replace Bengaluru as one of the five venues for the Women's 50-over World Cup.

www.icc-cricket.com

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Danny @dafrankland.bsky.social · Aug 21

It feels like kind of an under-reaction after the Ashes that the squad is almost entirely unchanged going into the World Cup.

Was there genuinely not anyone else who did well in the One Day Cup and deserved a call up?

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Danny @dafrankland.bsky.social · Aug 21

This stream has not been without issues.

Being Outside Cricket @outsidecricket.bsky.social · Aug 21

There is a two day T10 competition starting today between three SACA teams, with teams representing The Cricketer and ESPNcricinfo playing right now. Possibly the greatest exhibition of British Asian cricketing talent ever produced.

No comms or graphics: www.youtube.com/watch?v=gq0e...

SACA Remitly Cup

YouTube video by SACA

www.youtube.com

Danny @dafrankland.bsky.social · Aug 18

To me, the most interesting aspect of this documentary is that Sky Sports has chosen to produce it.

They account for maybe half of all the money in English cricket. If they're choosing to raise this issue, the ECB will listen.

Being Outside Cricket @outsidecricket.bsky.social · Aug 18

Sky have released a documentary about racism in English cricket on YouTube.

Even though it feels very cautious and arguably pulls its punches, it doesn't paint the ECB or English cricket in a great light. Surprising to see from their media partner.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrrf...

Beyond the Boundary: The story of British South Asian cricketers 🏏

YouTube video by Sky Sports Cricket

www.youtube.com

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Danny @dafrankland.bsky.social · Aug 13

The MCC's business model continues to impress me. They receive an equal share of ECB revenue as counties despite not having to pay for a professional cricket team, pathway, etc.

They then also extort money from their tenants, essentially getting paid twice from The Hundred sale.

Middlesex are facing demands for increased rent from the Marylebone Cricket Club to play at Lord’s next season.

Under the current terms of their lease Middlesex pay rent to MCC, who keep the gate receipts and hospitality revenue from their games, which is understood to have remained stagnant over the last few years while the cost of staging matches has increased considerably.

The two parties have yet to agree an extension to the existing 12-month rolling deal which expires at the end of the season, but are expected to do so.

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Danny @dafrankland.bsky.social · Aug 11

I wouldn't think so. The two women's matches which have started at 6pm have had 90% of the audience of the comparable men's match. I think they would hold their value well in terms of a UK TV audience.

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Danny @dafrankland.bsky.social · Aug 10

The ticket sales figure is often mistakenly used as the men's attendance, but is obviously inflated. It includes abandoned matches, people who leave after the women's match, and no-shows.

The men's Blast figures, by contrast, uses physical attendance and excludes the above things from 2019 onwards.

Danny @dafrankland.bsky.social · Aug 10

It bears saying that I don't think the ECB has ever released the actual total attendance for men's matches in The Hundred for any given season.

In this press release, the two figures it gives is the attendance of women's matches (320k) and *tickets sold* (540k). www.mynewsdesk.com/uk/england-a...

The Hundred kicks off at Lord’s in 2025

The Hundred is back for its fifth year after breaking more records in 2024 Lord’s to host first and last game of the competition, with a London derby...

www.mynewsdesk.com

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Danny @dafrankland.bsky.social · Aug 10

Have any of the new co-owners mentioned their women's team, even once? I haven't seen it in any of the interviews I have read.

I think the only positive of the sale for women's cricket is that some of the owners will want to have the men's games first for Indian TV.

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Danny @dafrankland.bsky.social · Aug 7

Tuesday's men's Hundred opener had an average BBC audience of 583,000, a drop of 14.3% from last year.

The full BBC figures for men's openers are:
2021: 900,000
2022: 520,000
2023: 345,000
2024: 680,000
2025: 583,000

The doc was in line with ITV1's repeat of Midsomer Murders, which averaged 860,000 across its two hours from 8pm. Ç4 and ITV1 were comfortably ahead of the 530,000 who watched Coastal Adventures with Helen, Jules and JB on 5 and the 583,000 who tuned into BBC2's coverage of The Hundred across its three hours from 6pm.

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Danny @dafrankland.bsky.social · Aug 3

That line was abandoned in 2018, I think. This interview with Tom Harrison gives the rationale which followed: beingoutsidecricket.com/2019/05/22/d...

Dissecting The ECB’s The Hundred Talking Points 2: From The Horse’s Mouth

It’s been a busy couple of months for me, regarding The Hundred. First I wrote a 6,000-word piece listing a hundred issues I had with the new competition, followed by a 5,000-word post about …

beingoutsidecricket.com

Danny @dafrankland.bsky.social · Aug 3

The point about The Hundred not leading new (younger, more diverse) fans towards the counties, women's professional teams and the England teams is that this was an explicit promise that The Hundred would achieve this.

Also the lack of apparent effort to convert Hundred fans by the ECB, I suspect.

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Danny @dafrankland.bsky.social · Jul 28

Of course, there is a difference between your coach saying you need to work harder and about fifty radio/TV commentators and a few thousand messages on social media with you tagged in. That would overwhelm almost anyone.

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Danny @dafrankland.bsky.social · Jul 27

Wasn't Charlotte Edwards talking about England players playing domestically more often before? It looks like Nat Sciver-Brunt has only played one match for The Blaze this season.

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Danny @dafrankland.bsky.social · Jul 27

Scrivens didn't make the final. Who are you, and how did you gain access to this account?

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Danny @dafrankland.bsky.social · Jul 25

a) Second lowest. McCaughan is quite a bit lower.
b) The gap between Scrivens, Jones, Bryce and Luff is 0.42 runs per 100 balls. Basically nothing.
c) England have been bowled out 6 times in their last 13 ODIs. They could use a batter who scores more runs at a slower rate.

Table of top 10 run scorers in 2025 Metro Bank One Day Cup so far.

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